ED takes Sudipta Sen on remand for 10 days

BHUBANESWAR: A local court today allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen on remand for ten days.

Sen was produced before the district and sessions court in Bhubaneswar by the ED, which sought a 15-day remand. After hearing ED's appeal, sessions court judge Durga Prasanna Choudhary ordered that the accused be sent to 10 days' remand.

The judge also directed the ED to produce Sen before the court on or before July 21, ED counsel Debasis Panda said.

The ED had requested the court to take Sen on remand to interrogate him in connection with offences committed by the group in Odisha. The court had earlier rejected Sen's bail plea.

Along with the Kolkata Police, the ED had brought Sen from Kolkata on July 3 to produce him before the court and take him on remand. But the court had sent Sen to seven days' judicial custody.

Both movable and immovable properties of the Saradha Group were attached in December 2013, following a finance department order on November 30.

Nine plots measuring a total of 13.64 acres at Srikona near Baleswar and a petty amount of Rs 2,740 deposited with the local IDBI Bank branch had been confiscated. The plots were bought by Sudipta Sen and Debika Dasgupta on behalf of M/s Saradha Realty Private Ltd.

These properties were allegedly procured using deposits collected by the chit fund group.